Editor's Desk

ICICI Bank – Image makeover – Learning from Mistakes

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In a recent meeting, the management highlighted its initiatives to change the general perception about the bank. Some of these aspects are very important and quite commendable as well, in our view.

ICICI Bank is trying to build personal relations with its customers and has been increasing its branch banking focus, compared to its earlier strategy of pushing customers towards ATMs and internet, which never allowed any relationship to be built between the customer and the bank. The management is trying to project a very soft image of itself across all customers and different from its earlier “know all” approach.

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Value of Indian Currency Notes + Coins Induced into Circulation in last 10 years

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In one of the Macro Economic Research we are undertaking, we wanted to know what is the total value of currency in circulation in India. We spent quite some time and money to gather this information from RBI [India’s Central Bank and Highest Authority on Banking]

The duty of the RBI is to place its indent for supply of fresh banknotes and coins every year with the Government Press / Mints and the Indian Government fulfill those requests. Here is the record as obtained directly from the records

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Indian Rice Export Scam of Rs 2,500 Cr – Courtesy Pranab Mukherjee + KamalNath

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If you read the Outlook magazine dated Dec-21st, you will notice that despite objections raised by then Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram and Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies Minister – Mr. Sharad Pawar, empowered group of ministers headed by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee under the controversial leadership of then Commerce Minister Mr. Kamal Nath pushed for Rs 2,500 cr Rice Export Scam when India itself was facing food inflation and rice shortage.  So now you know why prices of food and essential commodities rise 🙂

Read moreIndian Rice Export Scam of Rs 2,500 Cr – Courtesy Pranab Mukherjee + KamalNath

Nifty closes below the 5000-mark; RIL slips 2.77%

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Domestic equity markets witnessed heavy selling in the last hour of trade on Friday which resulted in the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) 50-share Nifty shutting shop below the psychological mark of 5000. After spending most part of the day in a tight range markets came under pressure in late afternoon trades on concerns over likely monetary tightening measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Weak Asian markets also weighed on sentiments in trade. Investors opted to take some profit off the table ahead of the holiday season, which starts next week. Sell-off was led by realty, oil & gas and banking sector stocks while selective buying was witnessed in healthcare, consumer durables and auto shares.

Read moreNifty closes below the 5000-mark; RIL slips 2.77%

GSM Subscriber Addition at 11 mn Plus in November

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India’s GSM operators (excluding RCOM and TTSL) reported another month of strong SIM card sales adding 11.1 mn SCIU versus 10.32 mn in the previous month. Increasing multi-SIM usage makes any inference on underlying industry trends based on this monthly data (mostly) meaningless.

Bharti Airtel – Bharti reported an increase in net adds in Nov 2009 to 2.8 mn, from 2.7 mn in Oct 2009. The company’s net adds market share, however, continues to dip – now down to 25.3% (among the GSM players excluding RCOM and TTSL) from 34% as late as May 2009. Bharti Airtel has bid for Warid Telecom in Bangladesh.

Vodafone – Net adds decline to 2.8 mn from 3 mn reported in the previous month.

Read moreGSM Subscriber Addition at 11 mn Plus in November

DoT may give 2G spectrum to newcomer entrant 3G winners

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In a move that will lead to increase in competition for the incumbent operators for the forthcoming auction of third generation (3G) spectrum, the department of telecommunications (DoT) is contemplating a move to provide 2G spectrum as well to the stand-alone winners of auction.

As per the revised memorandum issued by the DoT in October, along with the incumbent operators which have the Unified Access Service License (UASL), any player having experience of running 3G services is allowed to bid. The clause is primarily meant for the foreign operators. The DoT has also clarified that foreign operators can bid stand-alone and arrange a minority partner later.

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